Use of imaging sensors in vehicle imaging systems is common and known. Examples of such known systems are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,949,331; 5,670,935 and/or 5,550,677, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Headlamp control systems are also known, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,972,045; 7,004,606 and/or 5,796,094, which are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Early known head light control systems aimed to switch between the conventional high beam and low beam automatically, instead of manually by driver actuation. These early systems typically tried to determine headlights or taillights of vehicles distinct from non-vehicle light sources and reflections (such as described in U.S. Publication No. US-2007-0253597) captured by a front vehicle camera. Some known systems use specific algorithms for reflection determination (such as described in U.S. Publication No. US-2005-152581). Some known systems use color and pattern filters for detecting pairs of light (typically for determining cars and trucks), such as described in US-2008-0043099. Some utilize classifiers for determining light spots. US-2007-0221822 aimed to distinguish headlights from taillights and from streetlights and also suggests that the system's camera image classification is not just in use for head light controlling, but also for traffic sign detection, object detection and lane departure warning.